A national activist on Sunday burned the confederate flag near the Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Ala., reported AL.com.

"I want to send a message and make people think," said Pennsylvania attorney Gene Stilp hours before the Alabama 500 race. "The people in the middle perhaps don't know what exactly the flag means."

Stilp, 67, has held similar demonstrations in Bloomsburg, Penn., and at NASCAR races in Denver, Colo., and Dover, Del. There were reports of counter protestors attending, but Stilp burned the flag in front of the media, Alabama State Troopers and Talladega County deputies.

He said the officials were respectful.

"They just want to make sure everyone is safe," he said. "I don't want to put anyone in harm's way. I've enjoyed the great people of Alabama, the food, the experience."

NASCAR in 2015 asked fans not to display the Confederate flag at races, but many confederate flags still fly over race infields and campgrounds, mostly at Southern tracks.

The confederate flag has been a source of much discussion in the wake of violence at a Charlottesville, Va., white supremacist rally on Aug. 12 in which Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 were hurt when a car rammed into counter-protesters. Various rallies and protests have happened across the U.S., since and questioning whether Confederate symbols should remain a part of the landscape continues to be a topic of public discussion.